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John Bristow

Spring Gardens
Peter Street

Occupation: Carpenter, Mast and Block Maker 

On a visit to the Deal Museum, we came across a small leather bound notebook. It was obviously old, well – handled and some pages had been ripped and even torn out. What was left though was, to our minds, a treasure trove of information with family and business accounts, local news events as well as the family’s baptism, marriages and deaths. Even the times of birth of each Bristow family member are included! 

All this information spans from 1744 to about 1871. But when and who actually purchased the book is unclear and, as there are several different handwriting styles, it suggests that it was used by several members of the family rather than one just one person. 

The first page of the notebook is dated October 17th, 1802, but this may not be the original first page as it looks as if some pages have been removed. On this page and the next few pages are listed items of what appear to be weekly purchases of barley meal, peas, pollard and sharps. The first two are obvious and familiar, but pollards and sharps? These are, according to Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, “…names given to the intermediate products between white flour and bran which … generally used to feed stock upon…” As the first item at the top of the list was two pigs purchased for £1, 4s then the Bristow’s were obviously keeping and fattening up some pigs for family consumption. 

None of the pages in the notebook are in date order, and each side of the pages are written on and someone, possibly at a later date, has numbered them. Page five is dated October 16th, 1800, and just as on the first page of the book the page is taken up with the purchase of a single pig, for £1 2s, followed by the list of its feed, as it was purchased. 

On page seven is a list titled ‘Laid out for tools’. This includes saws, gouges, planes, chisels, a claw hammer, screwdrivers and a chest to put them all in. Now we know that John Bristow, who married Elizabeth Petty in Deal in 1799, was a carpenter so we compared his signature in the parish marriage register to the writing of this list. And it does appear to match.  

 

John, as we have said, married Elizabeth Petty in St. Leonard’s in 1799 but he was born in Ramsgate and on page 37 it is written that he was born on ‘February 3rd, 1777, at half 3 O’clock in the morning’

Further on the book it tells us that his father was also named John and that he was born on ‘March 15th, 1748, at ½ past 2 in the morning’ and that his mother, Mary Joab, was born on April 27th, 1744. 

These pages at least all seem to have been written by our carpenter John who may have arrived in Deal in 1797 as on page 15 of the notebook he purchases Cloth for sheets  -2 pair for 19s, 2 pair of sheets  £2, Half dozen tea spoons at £ 1s 6d, Bed Hagins  £4 17s 6d, 4 table cloths  £1 1s

Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal – Tuesday 13 September 1803

On the same page are listed several incidents starting in 1802 including a whale at Dover October 14th, 1802, ’the deaths by drowning of William Lilly on October 22 and David Candy on December 19th, 1802’. He also lists several boats that were beached at Deal. Then on September 15th 1803 he says ‘The Deal Gun Boats Fired of(f)’  

On November 10th he wrote ‘2 Coilyers (collyers) back on the beach  Lost’.  At this time Coal was brought into Deal and landed directly on the beach from where it was man hauled to whichever  coal yards had ordered it. Roget depicted this in one of his paintings. 

J. L. Roget Collier Unloading, Walmer 1874

One of the last entries, before some pages were torn out, was for ‘Stephen Wilds Hanged Himself in a Lodge Below the Half Way House Going to Sandwich Feb 28th 1811’ What drove Stephen to commit suicide we don’t know but he was buried in St, Georges, according to Sexton Nathaniel Rammels burial book, in a New Built Vault, on 7th March 1811, he was 26 years old.  His father we know was living in Spring Gardens when the 1801 parish cess was collected. This somewhere in the area of New Street and is where John and Elizabeth were also living; perhaps they were even neighbours? 

John and his Brothers 

Two years later Britain was at war with France, so the Government of the day passed two Acts of Parliament which resulted in what has become known as the Lieutenancy Papers. The first the Army Reserve Act was followed by the Levee en-Masse, both were to raise men to help defend the coastal regions, rather like the Home Guard of WW2. 

John and his brothers, Henry and Jacob, all appear on the resulting lists for Deal. John was then 26 years old and with two children under ten he was exempt from serving. Henry, also a carpenter, was a Sea Fencible. Jacob was apprenticed to a Ropemaker and as an apprentice he too was exempt from service.  

There were at least two Ropewalks in Deal. One, at the North End, on what is now Sandown Road, which is probably where Jacob worked and was learning his trade. 

It seems obvious that during the period of hostilities with France John, being a carpenter, would have worked to keep the Deal boats that were acting as gunboats in order and servicing the larger Naval Vessels anchored in the Downs. It may have been during this time that he began to specialise in mast, pump and block making. John in the 1827 Pigot’s Directory is listed as a Carpenter, Block and Pump Maker. 

What happened to Jacob after this time is not known. Henry though married Hannah Smith in 1805 and settled to the life of a grocer. 

John continued to work as a Carpenter. He, as we have said, and his brothers were born in Ramsgate but although we have his father’s birth date we have no idea where he or his parents came from.  

There appears to have been an Uncle, brother of our John’s father, also named Jacob Bristow. The first record we have of him is his marriage to Mary Hunter in Deal in 1782. We know him to have been a carpenter as when we compared the parish burial records against the records kept by Sexton Nathaniel Rammell, we saw that Nathaniel had written ‘Brister Carpenter’ against the date of burial. Nathaniel as you can see couldn’t spell Bristow and on another occasion spelt it as Bristol! 

24 December 1782   Brister Carpenter   a child south of Dan Hunters Stone   (aged)  0

It is a possibility that our John came to Deal to work with his Uncle Jacob, who died in 1802. The fact that there is the list of tools at around this date in the notebook suggests that he may have either purchased the tools from his uncle’s estate or even new ones so he could set up on his own. 

Peter Street had been laid out, if not built, by 1810 and this is where John and his family moved. Now we are not quite sure why John would have Mackerel nets for sale, maybe he did some fishing on the side, but in 1816 he had some for sale.  

Kentish Gazette – Tuesday 04 June 1816

Shoes for the Family 

Life went on, John worked, Elizabeth looked after the house and the children grew, as no doubt did the pigs! Then, in June 1816, Elizabeth Ann, their last child was born.
On a page with the heading
 ‘1816 Collard’ is a list of the families shoe repairs and of new shoes. It starts on 3rd March with a pair of shoes for Father, presumably this is John and is followed a couple of weeks later with ‘Pair shoes for David’ then the next day it says ‘Pair of shoes David mended’ then in May, David’s shoes are again ‘mended’ but then so are his fathers, David’s shoes are again mended in August and in October. David was then six years old so perhaps he can be excused, the rough treatment of his shoes. His older siblings all had shoes bought and ‘mended’ at least twice throughout the year. ‘Mother’ Elizabeth, had a new pair of shoes in September, and it seems to have managed to get away without having these or her old ones mended. Collard by the way must be Adam Collard who lived on Beach Street and was one of several Shoe Makers and Menders in the town. We have no idea of Adam Collard’s charges as none are listed. Two hats were purchased for ‘Father’ and one for Henry, maybe no one else needed them that year! 

Groceries 

The growing family needed to be fed, and we know from the notebook that in 1818 purchases of Sugar, Dutch Cheese, Butter and Coffee was ‘had of Mr Milgate’ as was an ounce of ginger, soap and a scrubbing brush’. Further on in the notebook are other food lists that include bread, flour, bacon, meat, turnips, apples.

 Other payments 

A regular weekly payment was going out at 2s 6d this is possibly the rent on their house and then there was the 2s 7d quarterly Pavement Sess’ collected by Mr. Hayward between 1816 and 1820. In 1833 and 1834 there were the ‘Church Cess and the ‘poor cess’ being paid from March through to January each year. Mr Munday was collecting the poor cess at 4s 6d and Mr. Hayman the church cess at 2s 3d.  

 Then on June 14th, 1833, tragedy struck, John died. He was then fifty-four years old. They may have, by then, moved to Ark Lane as this is where he was buried from. He was laid to rest in St. George’s Garden of Rest on the 19th June. 

The Bristow Children 

Another hand now starts to write in the notebook. It seems likely that this new writer was John’s son William Petty Bristow. John’s eldest son, and namesake, had by then married and moved to London both he and William, like their father, were carpenters. 

In 1831 William Petty married Mary Chapman and by 1841,  his mother,  Elizabeth, was at least staying with him and his family in Alfred Square. In 1851, Elizabeth and her daughter Hannah, were again living in Peter Street where the census tells us that Elizabeth is being “supported by her son”. Elizabeth died in 1859, probably while staying with William who had now moved to Beach Street. Hannah never married; she died in 1893 and was buried in Hamilton Road Cemetery perhaps beside her mother. 

There is an undated list that starts ‘Had of Uncle Bristow’. Uncle Bristow being Henry the grocer who provided the family with supplies over a few months ofcandles, soap tea, coffee sugar and butter. Whether Uncle Henry charged for these goods we don’t know as no prices were put against the items. It’s tempting to think, with no date given, that Henry may have been helping Elizabeth out after John’s death and William just noted what was given. Who knows, though? 

 Henry, William Petty’s next youngest brother, joined the Merchant Navy in 1822; apprenticed to Captain Skelton the owner of the ship the Castor. The ship sailed to America under Captain Bunker and returned in 1825. Henry’s wages during his seven years of apprenticeship are listed starting with £5 in year one, £6 in years two & three, £7 in years four and five rising to £9 in year six and £10 in his final year. A total of just £50 which was what a skilled tradesman would have earned in less than a year! Henry was to spend most of his life at sea eventually retiring to Iowa in the United States. His Voyages are recorded in the notebook especially when the ships he was serving on were in the Downs.

David, the young man who wore out his shoes, is not mentioned in the notebook again after the final shoe repair. Elizabeth Ann, who was born in Peter Street and was their last child, also seems to have disappeared. Neither appear in any of the official records when and where they should be. Perhaps they were mentioned in the notebook, on the torn out pages, if so we may never know what happened to them!  

The Weather 

Windsor and Eton Express – Saturday 26 November 1842

Random notes on the weather were also made with ‘heavy gale and wind’ October 29, 1842;  on 7th & 8th February 1847 a great fall of snow and on April 19th, 1849, ‘heavy fall of snow and hail’. The latter caused a Portuguese Schooner, spelt Skooner in the notebook, to come ashore ‘near the Esplanade a Total wreck one man drowned’. This was the Schooner Andorinba. 

The heavy gale and wind on October 29th 1842 sadly caused the deaths of four men. The writer dutifully recorded their names. Robert Wilkins, Thomas Jarman, R Dawes and J Day and again that simple, but tragic, word ‘Drowned’ 

A few weeks later Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were visiting Walmer Castle. At some point they became aware of the loss of these four men, and a cheque for £20 was duly sent to Mayor Edward Darby this was “… to be divided in four equal sums of £5..’between the widows and mother’ (of Thomas). 

The Reform

 The loss of the lugger The Reform in 1871 is also recorded.  The men that died that day are buried in Hamilton Road Cemetery 

William Petty Bristow’s Family 

William Petty continued to record the births of his children and later still their marriages and sadly some more deaths, including that of his wife Mary Ann who died on may 27th 1864 at their Beach Street home. 

She had at least seen her youngest son, Edward, marry Margaret Ann Ash in August 1863. His marriage and the births of his children, as you would expect are all written in the notebook. Followed on the same page by yet more gales, shipwrecks and loss of lives. 

John Henry Bristow

On a single piece of paper what looks like an accounts book page is written some information about William Petty’s son John Henry. He followed his uncle into the merchant navy and on the top of this page it says John Henry left home Aug. 4th, 1852. John Henry, on leaving the merchant navy, became a Customs Officer and was living in Stepney with his wife and children in 1861. However, in 1879 he was admitted as a private patient, into an asylum in Kent by 26 April 1880 he was recovered and discharged but on February 19, 1881, he was admitted to Norwood Lunatic Asylum where he remained until 29 October 1887. What he was being treated for in both cases we don’t know. By 1891 he was living with his family in Essex and again employed by the customs service. Sadly though, on 22 February 1899, he was again admitted to an Asylum this time it was Bethnall where he was a private patient. He died there on 21 March 1899.
There is no mention of any of this in the notebook and, apart from the children born to John Henry and his wife Ann Elizabeth before 1861 there is no further mention of him or his family. 

Following on from the random pattern of entries in the notebook on the reverse of the single piece of paper mentioned above are the earnings from the business for the three years 1860 to 1863 where William Petty and probably by now with his son Edward, earned £343, £219 and £272 respectively. As £300 was approximately £18,000 in 1860 which equated to what a skilled tradesman could earn in about three years trade must have been reasonably good.  

Edward, as we have already said, married in 1863 he and Margaret then moved into what was then known as Fisherman’s Row. By 1891 this had become Sydenham Road.  

Bye-Election 

In 1880 there was a by-election the Conservatives having not won in the area for many years decided to take action. This led to bribery and fraudulent activity on both the Liberal and Conservatives sides. Edward, on 13th October 1880 was called to give evidence at Deal Town Hall where the Inquiry into the ‘Corrupt Practices was held. Edward stated that he had received £6 in total. £3 he admitted was for his own vote and £3 for his neighbour John Neeve. When John was questioned, he stated that he had been asked by Edward if he would hang a Liberal flag on a pole on his house which, being a Liberal, he agreed to. He was then given the £3 sometime after the election. John insisted that he did not want the money but took it and that the money was not for his vote, as he always voted Liberal, but for hanging out the flag from his bedroom window. 

Edward, it has to be said, was one among many who took a bribe for his vote. He received as did all but ten of the men involved, which included a solicitor James Barber Edwards, a Certificate of Indemnity. 

Along with the notebook and photos in the Bristow family folder in Deal Museum, is a handwritten page giving details of the ownership of 3 Fisherman’s Row, later renumbered and renamed 13 Sydenham Road. According to this record the house was purchased by Edward in 1863 and the following year his first child was born there. 

Henry John his second son died there in 1889 he was only 17 years old. Sometime after this Edwin William emigrated, though no official records can be found to confirm this; a tiny note on another piece of paper simply states ‘emigrated to America’ and on another ‘not heard of since!’ 

It seems likely then that this photo, which has father and son written on the back, is of Edward and Edwin before he left Deal and his new life, wherever that may have been. 

William Petty Bristow died 186 Beach Street 1897. His son Edward took over the business, but it does not seem the notebook that his grandfather, John, had started one hundred years before. 

Edward continued to work as a mast and block maker. He was widowed in 1915 and continued to live in his Sydenham Road home until his own death on May 4 1921. The house remained in the family, finally being sold in 1976.  

The Last Page

On the last page of the notebook, is one final surprise. It is a love poem written or copied by John. It made us wonder if he wrote that for Elizabeth to find and what she felt when she did! 

Sources and further reading:~Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management
Lieutenancy papers
Nathaniel Rammell Burial Records – untitled on FindmyPast: photocopies at Deal Museum; originals at Canterbury Cathedral Archives.
Deal Museum- www.dealmuseum.co.uk/
Sketches of Deal, Walmer and Sandwich – Roget~
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)